“We gutted the electronics, built a bank of fuses and rebuilt a couple of the circuits.

“It took five weeks to get it into a condition where it was operable.

Great Yarmouth seaside landmark automata made by automata toymaker Ron Fuller.
On display at the Time and Tide Museum.
Picture: James Bass

“And when we took it back to the museum said they were sure there were bits that were working they hadn’t seen before.”

The automaton features scenes from Yarmouth’s history and holiday heyday and was built especially for the town in 2013.

A spokesman said: “Unfortunately the fault to the mechanisms was quite extensive and had caused quite a lot of internal damage.

“Sadly Ron Fuller passed away in 2017 and so it was feared that without Ron’s skilled craftsmanship, the limited circuit diagrams and sparse literature explaining its wiring and construction would never provide enough information for the repairs to be achieved.

Great Yarmouth seaside landmark automata made by automata toymaker Ron Fuller.
On display at the Time and Tide Museum.
Picture: James Bass

“Steve generously devoted many hours of his own time during lunch breaks and spare time to work on the project, with the support of the positioning team at Gardline.

“Without budget or instruction manual they painstakingly reconstructed the broken elements; rewiring and redesigning where necessary.”

Mr Hodds added: “It’s not often that a company such as ours can give something back to the culture of the town and thereby support the likes of the local museum service.”

The Museum is open 10am to 4pm Sunday to Friday.

Great Yarmouth seaside landmark automata made by automata toymaker Ron Fuller.
On display at the Time and Tide Museum.
Britannia.
Picture: James Bass